Theater review: Tragedy, comedy meet in powerful 'Fun Home'

Thursday

Oct 19, 2017 at 11:17 AMOct 19, 2017 at 11:22 AM

By Iris Fanger/For The Patriot Ledger

What can a child demand of a parent? And what does a parent owe to a child? Despite the emphasis on a father who is a closeted gay, and his daughter who grows up into a lesbian cartoonist –unlikely subjects for a musical– “Fun Home” sets them center stage to listen or not hear each other: parent and child, husband and wife.

“Fun Home,” winner of five Tony awards in 2015 including best musical, has landed at the Boston Opera House in a superlative production on its first American tour. The show is based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel that described her formative years in a dysfunctional family that had all the outlines but little of the security a child must have to feel safe.

The central character is Alison, narrating the story of those years. The role is divided between three actors: Kate Shindle as the narrator, the adult Alison, mining her memories to make sense of who she has become, while looking over the shoulders of her younger selves; Abby Corrigan as Middle Alison, the college student discovering her identity and sexuality; and Carly Gold as Small Alison determined to make her father bend to her wishes. The reality that the three-part Alison loves her father despite his failing to acknowledge her is the tragedy that binds them.

Lisa Kron adapted Bechdel’s book into a stage version and wrote the lyrics, in this heart-breaker of a tale about one American family in a small Pennsylvania town. Jeanine Tesori (“Caroline, or Change”) provided a score in the Sondheim tradition that moves the action along, in modules of tears, revelations, and asides. Led by Micah Young, a small but musically succulent, on-stage orchestra, accompanies the songs, without distracting from the prominence of the characters.

Bruce (Robert Petkoff), a conflicted man who wants to protect his image but can’t help himself from seeking solace from young men, moved his wife, Helen (Susan Moniz) and three children – Alison and her two younger brothers – to the small town where he was born when his father died. Bruce has taken over the family business, a funeral parlor, where he works on the cadavers. He also teaches English at the local high school, however, his true labor of love is the old house filled with antiques he has found at garage sales and flea markets. Helen has stuck it out, despite knowing the truth about Bruce’s transgressions. Their marriage is a sham but she claims to have made a bargain and stuck with it. The children are enlisted to please their dad by helping in the funeral parlor, which they have dubbed “Fun Home,” and in the house, dusting and cleaning to make everything fit the appearance of a beautiful, happy home.

Alison reaches back in her memories to discover why she became the same as her father. She relives incidents from her childhood and adolescent years ending after her father commits suicide at age 43. She never learns her father’s true nature until her mother tells her the hidden story, after Alison reveals she is a lesbian.

Director Sam Gold has picked an exemplary ensemble for the touring production, filled with actors who mine the humor of the family’s good times, even in the bizarre surrounds of the funeral parlor. Shindle, a former Miss America, leading actress in other musicals and author, makes Alison into a shimmering beacon of clarity as she understands that her father coped as best he could in an era when gay men in small-town America had to hide their true nature. As Middle Alison away at college, Corrigan – in a break-out performance – comes out with joy and relief in perhaps the best number in the show, “I’m Changing My Major to Joan.” The talented child Carly Gold (alternating the role with Jadyn Schwartz) is a mesmerizing presence in her insistence that attention must be paid to her.

Petkoff as Bruce is villain, hero and inconsistent man all at once, revealing a complex and tortured personality who rules the family and the stage, aided by Moniz as his seething but obedient wife. Victoria Janicki is a street-smart, sympathetic Joan, initiating Alison into a new life. Although one wonders if the show would be even more potent in a more intimate theater than the Opera House, there’s no denying the emotional punch of “Fun Home” for anyone who ever felt alone in their family.